Replacing skirting board - is it easy? Advice please!

I do hope someone can help me with this. MiL has kindly offered to lend us the money to get our bedroom replastered and it currently has nasty 80's skirting board which I have always wanted to replace with something more in keeping with the room (very high ceilinged Edwardian). I am ssuming if we do change the skirting now's the time to do it and that we'd need to get the old stuff off before the walls are replastered.

There's about 20m of it to replace so presumably it would be expensisive to get a professional to do it? I'm wondering if anyone can kindly advise me how difficult a job changing it ourselves will be? Presumably the old stuff is nailed or screwed on so would we just need a hammer & chisel to get it off? We've already had a price for the plastering job so I'm anxious we don't damage the walls when we take it off as this could up the price. Could we find an nasty suprises when it comes off?

And putting the new stuff on: is that going to be hard? A friend can lend us the equipment for mitring the corners but we have a chimney breast, 5 sided bay window and a couple of other twiddly bits to negotiate.

DH did ours...he bought one of those electric adjustable saws in a sale to cut the corners/angles and stuck it on the wall with no nails (the glue stuff). Looks great.Before this he struggled with a hand saw, a mitre block and mortar nails and he swore and complained the whole time, so I don't recommend that method.

I wouldn't personally, but each to their own. If it's an '80s affair who knows it might be easier to get off.We had to replace some of our 9" high skirting. It was £10/m just for the wood at the timber merchants! Could you find a handyman rather than a carpenter to do it? In our area (London) it'd cost £170 for the day and it would be done in a day (£220 for a carpenter). How long would it take your dh?Mind you, I'm assuming it only cost £350 is to replaster the room. How deep are your pockets?This is no help is it? !

What's your plaster like? Our house is late Victorian - fairly crappily built it has to be said - and whenever skirting has come off for whatever reason, large chunks of plaster have come off with it

Also there are bits of wood knocked into the brickwork & the skirting is nailed into those. Ours is also 9-10 inches high, have been trying to find an image of it but can't - anyway unlike Torus, which has a single curved section at the top, ours has a double one; last time we had some replaced it was available off the shelf but only in a 6-7" version, the builder had to add a chunk at the bottom to match the height.

The old stuff will be difficult to get off without damaging the plaster. But if you're replastering anyway, surely it's only another couple of inches? Can't see that it'll bump the price up at all.

I took ours off with a crowbar, using a piece of old wood to protect the plaster as much as poss.

Putting the new stuff on is very easy as long as you intend to repaint them. My mitre skills are ok, but don't quite cut the mustard if the corner isn't 90 degrees (most of the corners in both houses). But if you're going to paint, any gaps are filled in seconds with decorators caulk, and painted over.

I cheated when putting the new ones on, and rather than using nails or screws, used No Nails to glue them on. No screw or nail heads to cover either.

No, that is a help. It's costing £550 to have room replastered because it's so blooming big and ceilings are ridiculoulsy high. Where in London are you? Can you recommend a handyman? Maybe I should get some quotes as DH does not enjoy DIY and can get very stressed and I am having another baby in February and would really like us to still be married to each other...